WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

Some of you will already know that the Sumatra expedition met with more success than we could possibly have hoped. It would have been nice to have been first with the news but it wasn't to be. However, you can read the text of Richard's letter of yesterday HERE

Some months ago Alan Friswell, the bloke who made the CFZ Feegee Mermaid and also the guy responsible for some of the most elegantly macabre bloggo postings, wrote me an email. He had an idea for a new series for the bloggo. Quite simply he has an enormous collection of macabre, fortean, odd and disturbing magazine and newspaper articles, and he proposed to post them up on the bloggo.

Although I'm not exactly--to say the least--unfamiliar with taxidermy techniques, and consequently, cannot be too overly critical of those who practice it on a regular, professional basis, there is, I have to admit, something revolting about the image of an animal--particularly an endangered species--that has been stuffed and mounted. These images of a gorilla become even more disgusting when we read that the bastards who killed it also murdered--not too extreme a word, I think--its mate and baby. Still, there is a fascination in the process and it has to be said, they made a good job of bringing the poor sod 'back to life.'

Here's another famous stuffed gorilla, poor old Guy from London Zoo. The point of interest here is that the taxidermy work was carried out by Arthur Hayward, head of department at the Natural History Museum. Hayward had worked with Ray Harryhausen on the dinosaurs for One Million Years BC and The Valley of Gwangi.

Early this morning, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Arizona Game and Fish Department to prevent it from capturing or killing any more endangered jaguars. The suit seeks to prevent another tragedy like the killing this spring of Macho B, the last known American jaguar. Arizona Game and Fish illegally set up mountain lion snares in the canyon Macho B was known to use without seeking a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Macho B was subsequently snared, almost certainly on purpose, and later killed. In a callous response, Game and Fish not only claimed the lion-trapping study had a valid permit, it said it also has a permit to purposefully capture and collar jaguars. It does not.

Our suit will end the agency's flouting of federal wildlife laws once and for all. It will ensure that no state actions or permits are allowed that could threaten jaguars without full, proper, and enforceable limitations that come with federal Endangered Species Act permits.

Last week Brightstar Energy listened to the detailed opposition of the Center for Biological Diversity's lawyers and scientists -- and thousands of supporters like you who sent emails -- and withdrew its plans for a controversial solar-energy project that would have taken up some 5,000 acres of pristine, ecologically critical California lands on their way toward national monument status.

The Center for Biological Diversity applauds the project's withdrawal: While a rapid transition to renewable energy is essential, pristine public lands don't need to be sacrificed. Mapping and analysis by the Center identifies more than 100,000 acres of degraded lands in the California desert where solar projects would have minimal environmental impact. That's where development should be directed, not in a potential national monument.

Read more on the solar project in ecofactory.com and take action to make sure its former site indeed becomes a national monument.

Murkowski Clean Air Act Killing Rider Killed: Thanks Again

Though nothing is final till it's final, it appears that Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has lost her attempt to attach a rider to the EPA budget bill prohibiting the agency from using the Clean Air Act to rein in greenhouse gas pollution from coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities. Buried under an avalanche of protests -- including thousands of letters from Center for Biological Diversity members and supporters -- the Senate has agreed not to allow the Murkowski amendment.

Stay tuned for more last-minute attempts to gut the Clean Air Act and prevent the Obama administration from taking decisive action on global warming. Republican pollution pushers and blue-dog Democrats are pushing on every front in Congress to keep coal, oil, gas, and inefficient cars rolling along.

Feds Listen, Float Plan to Address Bat Extinction Spiral

Responding to calls from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has drafted a plan to address the deadly bat disease white-nose syndrome. Over the past three winters, the mysterious syndrome has killed about 1.5 million bats in the eastern United States, spreading from New York to Tennessee with devastating speed. Earlier this month, the Center wrote to the Fish and Wildlife Service requesting faster, more coordinated action on the crisis; we've also contacted the Department of the Interior and Congress -- with not a little help from our supporters. The final plan should provide specific guidance for state wildlife agencies on how to respond to white-nose syndrome, as well as measures to help the recovery of stricken bat species.

This month, California's Kern County Planning Commission gave its blessing to Tejon Mountain Village, a sprawling city planned for the state's beautiful and biodiverse Tejon Ranch. The proposed 26,417-acre project would build 3,450 homes and up to 160,000 square feet of commercial development smack in the middle of federally protected habitat for the endangered California condor. Some environmental groups have agreed to allow the destructive project in exchange for leaving other parts of the ranch undeveloped. But the Center for Biological Diversity is standing up for the condor and the irreplaceable Tejon lands it calls home. We've challenged the ranch's request for a permit to build the city without adequate environmental review, and we won the disclosure of documents on the condor's fate on the ranch, which the ranch was keeping secret. Eight of the country's most prominent condor experts agree that a sprawling development won't fly in condor habitat.

This Monday the Center for Biological Diversity and allies submitted a letter countering a proposed rule that would encourage clearcutting as good for the climate -- instead of the very obvious opposite. One provision of the rule, up for adoption by the California Air Resources Board later this month, appears intended to let forest clearcutting qualify as a greenhouse gas reduction method and earn carbon credits. Of course, a forest clearcut is about as beneficial to the climate as a new coal-fired power plant, considering the ample greenhouse gases emitted in the clearcutting process -- plus the fact that clearcutting removes precious CO2-absorbing trees.

This Tuesday during Climate Week -- the precursor to the United Nations' upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen -- President Barack Obama said he's willing to work to help the UN secure a strong international climate change pact. Obama called for world leaders to draft a response to global warming by the end of the year, citing his own administration's attempts to address the crisis, including House passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The Center for Biological Diversity congratulates Obama on promising to "boldly, swiftly" help the world confront climate change. But we'll have to do a lot better than the inadequate House-passed bill -- we must get to work now, both nationally and internationally, to reduce our atmospheric CO2 to 350 ppm or below.

It's a good thing the planet has Endangered Earth readers out there already working to stave off the worst environmental disaster of our time. Last week, 177 of you sent in some amazing examples of smart things you've done to help the earth in response to our The Age of Stupid contest, from writing to Congress for a strong climate bill to installing solar panels to saving a freshwater wetland. (One reader was a little less ambitious, but we still appreciate his words: "Something smart I do is subscribe to your emails.") Readers, we're impressed.

Last June marked the tragic passing of Luke Cole, one of the most influential figures in the environmental justice community. Founder and director of the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment, Cole was also a board member for the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. His work was among the first to highlight global warming as an environmental justice issue of massive proportions.

Cole was also an avid birder. So to celebrate his life and raise money for the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment, this weekend his friends will participate in and host a birding tour across Cole's home state of California to identify 400 bird species in 58 counties, from the great gray owl to the yellow-footed gull.

According to a sobering recent study, rattlesnake-killing contests have dangerously reduced populations of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes in the Southeast. "Rattlesnake roundups" are contests in which hunters bring in as many snakes as they can catch in a year to be milked for venom, butchered, and sold for meat and skin. The study, by Dr. Bruce Means, analyzed the number and size of snakes turned in at the roundups and found that both the total number of snakes and the size of each snake turned in have declined in the past 50 years. Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, once a common species, are now being pushed toward extinction by hunting, habitat loss, and road mortality.

With several thousand votes in, global warming denier Senator James Inhofe is leading the pack to win the 2009 Rubber Dodo Award for the individual who has done most to drive endangered species extinct. Close behind are Michael Winer, who is trying to put up a massive housing development in essential condor habitat at Tejon Ranch, and Idaho Governor Leroy "Butch" Otter, who salivates at the thought of shooting wolves.

We've gotten write-in votes for Gale Norton (old news), Sarah Palin (won it last year), Ken Salazar (maybe next year if he keeps following Bush policies), and most surprisingly, Stephen Colbert. A suspiciously large number of voters wrote in Colbert due to a feigned hatred of polar bears and a boast a few days ago that he wanted to "hunt a spider to extinction" because it was named after David Bowie.

If you haven't voted yet, do it today -- the award will be announced soon.

Extinction is serious business, and so is this award. So we're asking Colbert voters out there to consider the destruction advocated by Inhofe, Winer, Otter, and others.

Saved More Land Than Jesus? Thanks...I Think

In an interview in today's Tucson Weekly, famed environmental writer Chuck Bowden answered the question of who the best local environmental group is this way:

"The Center for Biological Diversity has saved more ground than Jesus. I often don't agree with them, but their record is better than mine. When I'm dead, and when everybody reading this is dead, the only thing that matters is ground."

As you know, Oll has been working on the archiving project since early February, and he is now working on the BHM section. This 7th trenche is a real mixed bag containing bits and bopbs about the Chinese yeti/snowman, more on the anniversary of Piltdown man and a lot of interesting debate about the earliest inhabitants of North America. Good stuff.

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CFZ APPEAL

In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.

This year's CFZ appeal is to raise money for their two families. Please be generous.